Janesville schools looking at automated alert system
JANESVILLE — A school is closing. Or locked down. Or officials need to calm fears quickly.
How does a school get the word out to parents?
The Milton School District used its SchoolMessenger system when it closed a school because of swine flu last week. The system sent a recorded message to all affected parents in just a few minutes.
The Janesville School District plans to have a similar system in place by next fall.
The district is looking at a system from AlertNow that would cost $2.40 per student per year, said Mat Haeger, manager of health services.
At 10,000 students, that's $24,000. Notification of staff members comes at no extra charge.
Officials will be able to go online or on the phone to record a message and have it sent automatically to every parent's phone, said district spokeswoman Sheryl Miller.
The AlertNow Web site claims its product can deliver voice, e-mail or text messages at a rate of more than 2 million per hour to telephones, mobile phones, PDAs or any Internet-enabled device.
Miller said she's not sure about e-mail, but the system the district is buying will not send text messages.
AlertNow suggests its system also can be used to deliver routine messages to announce events, enhance parental involvement, increase student attendance and bridge language barriers.
The Wauwatosa School District, which bought AlertNow in February, apparently has found that it is not perfect. Among the "frequently asked questions" on the district's Web site are explanations for parents getting only partial messages or no message at all.
The AlertNow system will deliver the entire message if it hears nothing in the first 3.5 seconds of the call being picked up. If it hears noise, such as a voicemail message, it will wait for silence before delivering the message, the site explains.
"If there is a break or substantial silence in the outgoing message, the system reacts as if it has reached a live person and will begin the message before the voicemail recording is engaged," the Wauwatosa schools Web site explains.
If the Wauwatosa system gets a busy signal, it will try three more times, at four-minute intervals, and then give up.
AlertNow claims its system is used by 22,000 school administrators nationwide.
After the weekend water-contamination scare in Janesville, the city now is considering a similar system to get the word out to residents in emergencies.
May 12, 2009 at 2:02 p.m.
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The school district I am in already does this. They do it for inclement weather, reminder calls for days off/early releases, etc.., It is very nice and helpful. I forget the name of the company, but it isn't the same one mentioned in the article. Heathwell maybe?
I particularily liked it this winter. I didn't have to get up super early to watch the news for closings/delays. I got a call around 4:30/5:00 am with the alert.
Very wise move.
May 12, 2009 at 1:51 p.m.
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Nowaydog- they all ready do that at Parker.
May 12, 2009 at 10:06 a.m.
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This is a very good idea and worth spending the money on.
May 12, 2009 at 8:12 a.m.
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maybe they could go one step further and not just send important messages but also send a call when there kid did not show up for school, with the technology I dont see why not, just a thought
May 11, 2009 at 9:16 p.m.
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is this the same school district that has yet to consolidate to one system for health care info for students from elementary to middle to high school? The same one that spent 6 months trying to get the web pages and their own email system to work?
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